The greatest science fiction hero sandwich are resourceful , building high - tech equipment out of whatever turd they detect laying around . In the correct bridge player , a paperclip and some bubblegum can become an interstellar wave modulator . The more ridiculous those moments of appliance improvisation are , the more they make you feel as if you could create your own otherworldly technical school and get at other major planet using the materials you already have — if you only knew how . Click through for our roundup of the peachy MacGyvers of sci - fi .
Doctor Who . The Doctor may be the baron of the MacGyvers , constantly improvising incredibly complex gimmick out of whatever garbage he finds . But his craziest minute of jury - rig is probably in “ The Time Monster , ” when he build a space - metre disruption automobile — which renders metre - travelling impossible — out of a vino bottle cork , a yoyo and a fork . I loved that panorama so much when I was a kid , but now it ’s a morsel embarrassing . And yet , still kind of inspiring !
Star Trek . Over the decades of Trek , there ’s been a sight of hoi polloi building weapons out of translators , or technobabbling their way into create Everything machines . But the humankind who says the idiom “ jury - rig ” or “ Jerry - swindle ” the oftenest , and in the screwball state of affairs , is Scotty , our cunning engineer . He ’s the guy who builds a nuclear nuclear reactor pump out of morsel and art object in “ Devil in the Dark , ” and coverts an ancient ship ’s shields to control a Dyson sphere open in “ Relics . ” Not to mention retooling a transporter to keep him in stasis , in that same sequence .
Stargate : Atlantis . Rodney McKay famously asks “ What am I , MacGyver ? ” in this twirl - off from the Richard Dean Anderson - star Stargate SG1 . But he in reality does work out technological marvel at regular interval , get sense of Ancient engineering . He build up an nuclear bomb for his sixth - degree science task . Not to mention , in “ Condemned , ” he totally one - ups Scotty when he say it ’ll take two days to cobblestone together a raw “ Dial - Home twist ” from subaltern organization … and then downgrades that estimation to ten minutes in a pinch .
Can Of Worms . We have to send a shout - out to Mike Pillsbury , who manages to transmute his family ’s satellite bag into a communications machine to contact alien life forms . Watch our amazing videohere .
https://gizmodo.com/wont-somebody-rescue-this-kid-from-earth-340704
Eureka . Henry Deacon , a former NASA engine driver , is the mechanic for the small town of Eureka , and literally every other episode revolves around him building some wild contraption out of nothing in finicky . want a pocket - sized thingamajig to erase someone ’s memories of an alternate timeline ? Or a quick cobbled - together machine to undo the effects of a paranoia light beam on a whole bunch of bigwigs ? Henry ’s your guy .
E.T. Okay , you do n’t really call back of that wormy - look , bighearted - eyed cute alien with the burn cockfingers in the same breathing time as Scotty and McKay . But just recall : whobuildsan interstellar communications equipment out of an former Speak & Spell toy using a pelage - hanger ? It ’s not Scotty .
Bill And Ted ’s Excellent Adventure . The only people less likely than E.T. to come up on your MacGyver radar are Bill and Ted — but they dofix their time machineusing only a yield can and some house of cards gum . You have to give them prop for that .
Fantastic Four . I waver to let in Reed Richards , the crack - scientist who ’s always build skyrocket and weird toy out of bits and pieces , because he has a huge lab and does n’t really just use scraps . But then I realise this control board , from the alternative - universe Last Planet Standing , and had to give it to him :
Buckaroo Banzai is another daft inventor who has a research laboratory and an ample supply of parts , but we ’re still blown away by some of the matter he give together , like the Oscillation Overthruster , which ravish matter into parallel universes . Not to advert the Jetcar .
Thanks to Angel and Kevin for research assistance .
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